Former Stephens College dean files lawsuit against school, leaders

Its website and billboards encourage students to “dream up,” but Stephens College and some of its leaders now face a lawsuit from a former employee claiming that slogan is false.

From 2016 to June of this year, Carole Chabries was the dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies at the college.

In court documents, Chabries said she accepted the position because of the school’s reputation as “a progressive and prestigious women’s college.” She soon found it to be a hostile work environment that included gender discrimination.

“You usually think about people that aren’t in the group discriminating or having a particular viewpoint that that’s how you need to be, but sometimes it turns out it’s the people that are also within your group who have thoughts about how you should be, because you’re a member of that group and that’s what happened here,” said Julianne Germinder, Chabries’ lawyer.

Aside from the college, both Leslie Willey, vice president of academic affairs, and President Dianne Lynch are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Chabries said she had taken some pre-approved time off in October 2016 and had also taken time off for a family death in December. She claimed Willey cited those instances to make the discriminatory remarks that “as a woman, she might need to step back from her career to take care of her family and that many women have to sacrifice their careers for their families.”

Chabries said she confronted Willey about her comments and contacted the chair of the board of trustees to report it. She even listed witnesses who could back up the discriminatory claims to the college, but no one was interviewed. That’s when she felt both Willey and Lynch retaliated.

Court documents claim Willey reassigned Chabries’s work and Lynch attempted to intimidate Chabries into withdrawing her complaints. At one point, Chabries said Lynch told her she “should choose better places to [stand up for herself].”

After “months of fighting back,” Chabries felt pushed out of her job and gave her notice on June 14 before filing the lawsuit this week.

ABC 17 News has contacted Stephens College for comment on this story. As of Wednesday afternoon, its media relations and community specialist said she would “be in touch.”